The FCC announced on Tuesday that Verizon and Sprint have agreed to pay $158 million to settle their bill cramming investigations with the Commission. Verizon Wireless will pay $90 million and Sprint Corporation will pay $68 million, and much of that will go to consumer refunds.

“For too long, consumers have been charged on their phone bills for things they did not buy,” said the oft-outspoken FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. “We call these fraudulent charges ‘cramming,’ and with today’s agreements we are calling them history for Verizon and Sprint customers.” Read More

Monday, U.S. wireless carrier Sprint announced Direct 2 You, an industry-first new service that sends a retail-trained Sprint expert to your home or other location who will deliver and set up your iPhone or other device, promising to change how customers buy or upgrade their phones, tablets and other mobile devices.

In addition to bringing a mobile device to your own home, office or other location of your choice, Sprint’s experts will set it up on your behalf and transfer all the content, including contacts, pictures, videos and apps, from an old device to a new one, simplifying switching from one platform to another. Read More

Google wants US subscribers of its upcoming mobile phone service to be able to roam the globe and see no extra charges. Specifically, The Telegraph reports Google is in talks with Hutchison Whampoa, the owner of the mobile operator Three and soon O2 in the UK. Read More

The early termination fee is why many customers don’t make the switch from one carrier to another. In many cases, the fee is required to be paid to end the two-year contract carriers like to lock you into. Read More

Friday, United States wireless carrier Sprint kicked off a new promotion offering customers up to ten lines of shared unlimited talk and text and twelve gigabytes of LTE data in exchange for $90 per month.

The aggressively priced plan, Sprint insists, is a better value than comparable offerings from rivals AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile. The carrier says the promotion is available until March 12, 2015. Read More

T-Mobile CEO John Legere claims that his Uncarrier is now the third largest carrier in the United States, overtaking Sprint for the spot behind AT&T and Verizon. Legere had been predicting the overtaking of Sprint for sometime, and he finally made the claim it’s happened during T-Mobile’s earnings call Thursday afternoon. Read More

The process of unlocking your iPhone became a little bit easier today in the United States. Today marks the deadline for wireless carriers to adopt the unlocking standards of the late-2013 agreement set forth by the CTIA.

The agreement is industry-wide, and mandates that carriers adhere to 6 rules including clearly posting their unlocking policies online, and offering to unlock postpaid handsets once the customer’s contract has expired. Read More

The Wall Street Journal reports Google’s upcoming and rumored wireless service won’t rely on one single carrier, and instead will switch between networks to give customers the best wireless signal.

The service will feature new technology that would hunt through cellular connections provided by Sprint and T-Mobile and Wi-Fi hotspots, picking whichever offers the best signal to route calls, texts and data, the newspaper’s sources said. Read More

Yesterday, T-Mobile in a typical Un-carrier move dropped credit checks to permit its loyal users, especially prepaid customers, those with a weak credit and ones on a monthly voice plan, to enjoy the best deals and zero-down offers.

It didn’t take rival Sprint long to respond.

Targeting T-Mobile customers, Sprint said today that it’ll be guaranteeing switchers a minimum trade-in credit of $200 for their current T-Mobile smartphone in good condition, and up to $350 per line to cover switching costs. Read More

Sprint took Thursday to report preliminary results for its third fiscal quarter, and showed T-Mobile still has its work cut out for it. During the quarter, Sprint’s net customer additions totaled 967,000, including postpaid net additions of 30,000, prepaid net additions of 410,000, and wholesale net additions of 527,000.

The fourth-largest carrier T-Mobile is out with its preliminary fourth quarter earnings on Wednesday, and they show it might not be the fourth-largest carrier for long. The mobile carrier, lead by scrappy CEO John Legere, posted a total of 8.3 million total net customer additions in 2014, providing the biggest year of growth for the company yet – 89 percent from the prior year. Read More

Sprint just had a pretty bad day, sending its stock down 5 percent after some troubling news. The Wall Street Journal reports an FCC official confirmed the regulatory body is preparing to fine Sprint, the nation’s third-largest mobile carrier, a record $105 million after allegations it charged consumers for unwanted text message alerts and other services. Read More

You know holidays are around the corner when greedy carriers start putting out promotions offering substantial savings and other perks if you jump ship. Announced on Tuesday, Sprint’s new promotion promises to cut your wireless bill in half if you switch to Sprint from AT&T or Verizon Wireless beginning Friday, December 5, for as long as you remain on the Sprint plan.

Plus, Sprint will buy out your contract up to $350 per line. “You’ll get unlimited talk and text to anywhere in the U.S. and we’ll match your data,” the carrier teased. As an example, a Verizon customer paying $140 per month for four lines and ten gigs of data can get four lines and the same ten gigs of data on Sprint for $70 per month, or half the Verizon’s price.

After unveiling its ‘iPhone for Life’ annual upgrade plan last month, Sprint, the nation’s fourth-largest carrier on Thursday announced a similar ‘iPad for Life’ plan for the latest iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3.

With this plan, customers can get the latest iPads for $0 down and 24 monthly payments that will vary depending on your chosen storage capacity.

And like the iPhone for Life plan, the new offering helps customers upgrade to the latest iPad model provided they bring in their existing device in good condition and their lease period has expired. Read More

Sprint is expanding its Spark network, what it calls an enhanced version of LTE, to 17 new cities on Wednesday, including Cleveland, Columbus, Denver, Sacramento, and Seattle. The expansion is part of Sprint’s plan to expand Spark coverage to 100 million people by year-end, and as of today, brings the network technology to 46 markets across the country. Read More

Boost Mobile will begin selling the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus next week. CNET reports that the two handsets will become available at the carrier starting Friday, October 17, with a $100 discount on full retail pricing offered on all models.

For those unfamiliar with the provider, Boost Mobile is a prepaid division of Sprint that offers no-contract service for a low monthly fee. So users pay full price for their devices, and in return get cellular plans starting at $35 per month. Read More

Leading United States carriers — Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint — have responded to the release of Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in literally the same manner, by doubling the amount of LTE data included in shared plans albeit on a temporary basis.

AT&T is doubling cellular data on 15GB and higher Mobile Share Value plans through October 31.

Sprint has responded by changing its 32/40/60GB Family Share Pack buckets to 60/80/120GB ones at no additional charge, also valid through October 31.

And arriving late to the party, Verizon is now getting in on the double-data action by increasing the amount of data available to customers who subscribe to its higher-end family plans. The Big Red carrier’s time-limited promotion lasts between tomorrow and — you guessed right — October 31.

Jump past the fold for additional information and the fine print. Read More

Every year it is the same scenario: Apple unveils a new iPhone, and we all start wondering what we’re financially able to afford. The question on everybody’s lips then becomes “am I eligible for an upgrade?” If you bought your device 2 years ago, then chances are you are already eligible for an upgrade. If you’re not sure what your current status is, we have a way for you to check if you’re going to be able to pick up the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus at the subsidized price, or if you’ll have to break that piggy bank you’ve been preciously keeping on your dresser for the past 15 years. Read More